A jury in Bridgeport, Connecticut, took just 25 minutes to dismiss her claim on Tuesday. By this time, the story had already gone viral on social media, with people branding her the ‘worst aunt ever’ and ‘the auntie Christ’.

But both parties appeared on the Today show to say it was all supposed to be a simple homeowner’s insurance claim.

Sean Tarala said his aunt would never want to hurt him (Picture: NBC/Universal News And Sport)

If a person’s hospital bills aren’t covered by their medical insurance, it’s common to claim the money from homeowner’s insurance instead.

As you can’t sue a home insurance company directly, it’s necessary to put the name of one of the tenants. In this case, it was Sean.

‘I love her and she loves me,’ Sean said. ‘She would never do anything to hurt the family or myself.’

Jennifer Connell (Picture: NBC/Universal News And Sport)

And Jennifer added that she didn’t even want to name Sean in the lawsuit.

‘This was simply a case of formality with an insurance claim,’ she said. ‘I said at the start of this, ‘I don’t understand why. I don’t want to sue Sean’.

‘I’m no legal expert but as I understand it, in Connecticut, it’s not possible to name an insurance company in a suit of a homeowners insurance case.

‘An individual has to be named, and in this case, because Sean and I had this fall together, I was informed that Sean had to be named. I was never comfortable with that.’